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Niger Delta: Will Kalu's Committee Make The Difference? The Presidency last Thursday resumed the search for a solution to the Niger Delta question with the constitution of a 40-member team headed by a former Finance Minister and renowned World Bank economist, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, to handle the dialogue. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who was expected to return last Friday, but could not, was said to approve the list of nominees to serve on the Technical Committee, to review and distil all previous reports on the Niger Delta, and come up with appropriate recommendations on the way forward for the embattled region. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to inaugurate the committee today, all things being equal, at the State House, Abuja according to a statement by his spokesman, Ima Niboro. The 40 wise men and women that form the committee, as expected, were greeted with mixed feelings. While majority seem to have integrity, there are some with crisis of credibility while some are believed to have exhausted their mental energy. The Niger Delta stakeholders' talks had been stalled over its headship after the uproar that followed the initial naming of former Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, as chairman of the steering committee. Gambari, currently a United Nations envoy, later opted out. The government also turned the summit to a stakeholders' dialogue. Coincidentally, the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) same Thursday called on the Federal Government to take more decisive action to develop the Niger Delta. It said the government had been too slow and sluggish in spite of all the fora and talk-shops held on the issue. NASU said that it was physical development of the area that was required of the Federal Government while the oil companies there should devote significant funds for projects in the oil bearing communities. The national president of NASU, Mrs. Ladi Iliya, stated at its National Executive Council meeting in Jos, Plateau State that Niger Delta governors should spend a substantial percentage of their revenue earnings from the Federation Account for the benefit of the down-trodden of the states. Iliya urged the Federal Government to adequately fund the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to aggressively embark on social services, such as the provision of potable water, effective health care, roads and employment for the restive youth. Indeed, this advice is apt. Until government begins to practice what it preaches on the Niger-Delta question, the violence will not abate, and the entire country stands to be consumed by it.
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Adjournments Are Made Of These
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Privatisation, according to experts, is an economic policy that seeks to place the commanding heights of business activities in the hands of private entrepreneurs as against the hitherto dominance of the public sector, that is, the government and its parastatals.
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Alhaja Mutiat Adetoun Adediran could be described as a 'Renaissance woman' for leading a silent revolution in Nigerian politics.
